These Are Our 5 Favorite Moments From 'The Grand Tour'...So Far

25.6K

Views

The show hasn't been perfect, but these moments were incredible.

2016 has not been everyone's favorite year, but we must admit that some good things have come out of it. For instance, when Jeremy Clarkson was fired from the BBC we all thought that was the end of awesome motoring TV. When the first episode of "The Grand Tour" premiered we were simply in awe of how good Clarkson, May and Hammond could be without the BBC hovering over them. We decided to compile our five favorite moments from the show so far. The drawn out wait almost made the list, but we included only actual show moments.

Amazon knew that it had to make the first episode of "TGT" something special. What better way to do this than by doing a comparison test of the hypercar holy trinity? This was a moment that everyone waited for on "Top Gear," but they couldn't make it happen. It was amazing to finally see Clarkson, May, and Hammond test these three cars, but there were some disappointments. For starters, the LaFerrari couldn't be driven on the road and was absent for much of the test. Also, there was no mention of the bet to change Clarkson's name to Jennifer if the P1 lost, we assume for legal reasons with the BBC (although he did get his house blown up). At the end of the day it was still nice to see a winner finally declared. Congratulations, Porsche 918 Spyder.

Episode three was fun because we got to see the trio drive three very different cars on a road trip, making for one wacky comparison. The best part of the episode was Hammond's constant annoying antics in the Dodge Challenger Hellcat. The Hellcat has a very loud 6.2-liter supercharged V8 which constantly irritated James May. He was behind the wheel of the comfortable and very quiet Rolls-Royce Dawn. Hammond would floor it when driving through tunnels just to piss off May. A close second favorite part of this episode were the jokes about Clarkson's brown Aston Martin, which was really a burnt shade of orange.

The very first thing that we saw on "TGT" was an epic scene in which the guys drove Ford Mustangs through the desert with a convoy of expensive cars trailing behind them. Amazon gave the show a huge budget to work with, and a big portion of it was spent on the very first scene. It was reported that the opening scene alone cost $3.2 million to film and featured 150 cars, 2,000 car enthusiasts, acrobats, stilt walkers, and jet planes. The scene was visually stunning, especially considering that the show is shot in 4K ultra-high definition.

A big part of "The Grand Tour" are the road trips and high-budget scenes, but part of the draw for enthusiast will always be the simple track tests. Obviously the Dunsfold test track is still used by "Top Gear," so the show had to create its own proving ground. It's called the "Eboladrome" and features lots of cleverly named turns like "Old Lady's House." The first review on the track was a test of the BMW M2 performed by Clarkson. He called it his favorite M car of all time, which is very high praise for BMW's least expensive M model.

James May got the chance to drive an original Ford GT40, as well as a Ferrari P3, each worth several million dollars. While behind the wheel he told the amazing story of how Ford challenged Ferrari at LeMans after Enzo Ferrari backed out from his deal to sell to Ford. We finally get to see the piece of the story that most people do not know. Ford failed for a few years before finally conquering the Italian automaker. The piece was highly informative and a joy to watch.